emblematic form in many Indian traditions. It
can take the form of a pot or other vessel, a cleft
rock, or a pond, lake, or pool. In certain esoteric
rituals, a human vagina is worshipped directly.
The association of female genitals with the divine
female principle, and the correlation of women’s
reproductive and sexual cycles with the Earth’s
seasonal and vegetative cycles, have given the yoni
cosmological significance.
Considered the gateway between life and
death, as well as the generative force behind all
existence, the yoni has had special importance
particularly in the KAULA, SHAKTA, and TANTRA tra-
ditions. However, even ordinary Shaivite devotees
worship the yoni together with the SHIVA LINGAM
(phallus); the popular icon consists of a rounded
stone shaft placed upright on a horizontal circular
base that forms the yoni.
All of these practices are probably based
on pre-Vedic, prepatriarchal civilizations. Many
female figurines have been discovered in a pre-
Harappan site in the Zhob Valley dating to the
midfourth millennium B.C.E. Many of these fig-
ures had pronounced breasts and yonis, perhaps
signifying their generative function. Cowry shells,
a common representation of the vulva, were also
found at these sites. Scholars believe women
most likely used these objects in rituals, perhaps
together with their own menstrual and sexual flu-
ids, in order to ensure a fruitful harvest.
Numerous seals, ritual objects, and yoni/lin-
gam structures from the later INDUS VALLEY CIVI-
LIZATIONS of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa also
point to an early understanding of the sanctity
of female sexuality and its association with the
Earth’s fertility. Reverence of the female principle
and the belief that it controls the perpetuation of
the human and vegetative life cycles seems to lie
at the base of these civilizations.
In the fourth century C.E., the cult of the god-
dess Lajja Gauri arose across the subcontinent.
The most well-known images depict a woman
with her legs bent and open and her vulva com-
pletely exposed. Often, her head has been replaced
with a pot filled with vegetation. In some depic-
tions vegetation emerges from her yoni. These
iconographical representations of the Goddess
seem to have originated in the early Indus Valley,
or even pre-Indus Valley civilizations. Lajja Gauri
and another goddess of vegetation, Sakhambari,
are worshipped today as the embodiment and
generator of fertility, fortune, abundance, and life-
force energy, qualities that are also associated with
the yoni. The Goddess in general is conceived as
the elemental source of all animal and plant life,
as creative power personified.
Creative female sexual power is represented
in various symbols even today. The lotus has
become a quintessential symbol of the yoni. In
SHAKTA and TANTRA texts, the yoni, as is the lotus,
is a symbol of perfection, symmetry, and beauty.
In Hindu cosmology waters are considered the
perennial source and equated with the Goddess’s
womb. As the lotus rests on the water and
remains unsaturated by water, not soiled by mud,
to Shakta tantrics, so the yoni remains perpetu-
ally pure.
In Hindu architecture, the temple is con-
ceived as a microcosmic representation of the
macrocosmic whole. The inner sanctum of Hindu
temples, regardless of religious sect, is called the
garbhagriha, which means “womb-house.” In
Guwahati, Assam, at the site of the Kamarupa
Temple, the Goddess in her form as the Great
Yoni is worshipped. Here she is worshipped in
aniconic form as a dark wet rock over which a
natural spring flows. Each summer this water
turns red and is worshipped as the Goddess’s
menstrual blood.
KAMAKHYA, in Assam, is a PILGRIMAGE site to
Shaktas, Kaulas, and Tantrikas who worship a
woman’s menstrual blood as the sacred and potent
elixir of life. In these traditions, women’s men-
strual cycles relate to processes of the universe.
The body itself is considered the link between
earth and cosmos, a microcosmic representation
of the macrocosmic whole. In Kaula, Shakta, and
tantric cosmogony women play a divine role dueK 516 yoni